1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus having plural recording and/or reproducing units.
2. Background of the Invention
In recent years there has been an increase in popularity of disc recording and/or reproducing apparatuses for recording and/or reproducing information signals on or from a disc-shaped recording medium, such as an optical disc or a magneto-optical disc. Such a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes a disc driving unit rotated along with a disc and which is adapted for writing/reading information signals on or from the rotated disc.
The disc driving unit includes a disc table adapted for holding the disc and which is rotated along with this disc by a motor operating as a driving source. The disc driving unit also includes an optical pickup unit and a magnetic head unit for recording or reading out information signals on or from the disc rotated along with the disc table.
With the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus, the disc is positioned on the disc table with a chucking center aperture as a reference, and is held in this condition by a holder for rotation. By the head unit, the information signals are recorded on or read out from the recording disc.
There also exists a multiple disc changer, in which a plurality of discs are housed and held within a disc stocker in an outer casing, and a selected one of the discs is taken out of the disc stocker and loaded on the disc driving unit for recording and/or reproduction.
Such a disc changer has one or more disc driving units and a transporting mechanism for transporting discs between the disc stocker and the disc driving unit or between the disc driving units.
The transporting mechanism selectively takes out and transports a disc from the disc stocker and loads the selected disc on the disc driving unit. The transporting mechanism also dismounts the disc loaded on the disc driving unit and returns the disc to an original housing position in the disc stocker.
With the above-described disc changer, if there is provided only one disc driving unit, the disc transporting distance by the transporting mechanism is increased, thus complicating the structure of the apparatus. Since the recording and/or reproducing operation is carried out by a single disc driving unit, it becomes difficult to exchange the discs promptly, so that it becomes difficult to perform recording and/or reproduction of multiple recording discs without interruptions.